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Monday, June 15, 2009

I love Shrinky Dinks, don't you? We used to make them all the time as kids. I guess there was somthing bad in them. But now they are made sans the bad stuff (I hope). For my son's birthday party last month, we made Shrinky Dinks. Since then I've been renewed in my love for the dinks. My husband had dropped by to get me some Shrinky Dinks for the party. He came back with this PRINTABLE stuff! I was thrilled until I saw how much it cost. It was about $11 for one pack and he picked up three packs for me. Eeek. I returned two, but held onto one because I had to try it out. I found the regular Shrinky Dinks for the party. Just a refresher for you incase you haven't shrunk anything since the 70's your childhood last year. Remember the edges come out sharp. Always curve your corners unless you intend your project to poke someone's eye out. Punch any holes into it BEFORE you bake them. If you forget, you will have to do something drastic like pull your drill out to make a hole after you have baked them. (Not like I'm talking from experience...there was only one little kid's project that missed getting a hole punch before baking.)

I can't wait to do this for Christmas...just wait and see...I punched all the way around some of them. (This one was not a printable one. With the regular kind, you want to do your design or words backwards so that the top is glossy when it is all baked and shrunk.)

I wanted some magnets. I printed family pictures on these so I'm not sharing the fronts. I wanted the first to look like lace so I cut the edges and punched it to look lacy. The second one I threaded ribbon through it to give it a little detail. I used some trusty E-6000 glue to stick my super strong magnets on.

Did you know you could use the hole punched holes to CROCHET AROUND your project? I LOVE!! I backed this with a little felt and some nice glue, and then glued a magnet on the back. Seriously I'm thinking about Christmas ornaments made like this!

Let your creative juices flow and you will probably fall back in love with the Dinks as I have!

Anjeanette

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Katrina here

My boys love this stuff. Can you believe I went to 2 different stores and they didn't know what "Shrinky Dinks" were?! We are talking a big chain craft store and they didn't know what I was talking about. They looked at me like I grew a second head. LOL Turns out they did have some but they already had patterns on them. They were labed as "Shrink Art." I did eventually find some plain Shrinky Dinks and another craft store.

When the girls suggested a 3 way make with Shrinky Dinks, I wasn't sure what I could come up with. Some times I never know until I start "playing with an idea." Around here we have been playing around with doing hand prints. For the kid's first year I inked their feet almost every month and stamped them on paper(I wrote their names and dates on the backs). After that first year I switched to doing their hand prints every few years.

I started by inking up a hand on each of my boys and transfering their hand print onto a sheet of Shrinky Dink. I then wrote their names and the year along side their hands. I cut around the hands leaving a gernerous border. Note: Do not try to cut out around the fingers. They will curl and stick together and look like your child broke a finger. ;) So these hands are my take 2. I used two 5x8 sheets for the hands.

Then I used one whole 5x8 sheet to write out the "Daddy...." saying and rounded only the top two corners.

For the base of my little desk plaque I used a fourth 5x8 sheet and had my oldest son write "Happy Father's Day" and his name. Then I helped my 5 year old write his name. He still wants hand over hand help when writing. I then rounded all 4 corners.

I shrank all my pieces and then glued them together. The two hands on the top of the saying and I used bamboo skewers to help hold up the upright plate while it dried and to add a bit of something extra.

I wish you could see this in person. No matter how many pictures I took of it, they just don't do it justice. I love that you can see their finger prints and all the lines in their palms. They are not actual size anymore but still you know they are their hand prints.

If I were able to find the printable stuff, I would totally make these with the kids pictures on them.

---------------Rebecca here with my version of a Father's Day gift using shrinky dink. For me, I didn't have to think up a way to use shrinky dink. I had already been inspired to use it, from Anjeanette's Son's Birthday Party where we used it! I had this gift in mind since then.

1. Trace kids hands onto a page of the shrinky dink paper. Cut out handprints. (As Katrina mentioned, cutting out the individual fingers will cause your fingers to curl and you can have problems with them sticking together. Thankfully mine opened back up when they were done baking.)

2. Decorate your handprints. I had colored pencils ready for my kids to color their handprints. They all decided to leave them just black and white. I did talk my kids into signing their names in the palm and then write their age on the thumb.3. Punch a large hole in the bottom of the hand (holes shrink up tiny, and they can even disappear completely if they were too small)4. Put your handprints on a cookie sheet and cook according to directions on your package of shrinky dinks. Make sure to leave space between them so they don't stick to each other, as they do curl up a lot during the baking process (and then they flatten back out).5. A variation on this would be to turn the hands into a 3D version. When you take these out of the oven, you can still manipulate them for a very short time. These would be super cute made up into the sign language form for "I Love You". You would just bend the middle 2 fingers into the palm. They will stay hardened at this point. However, since I had 3 handprints going on this project, I needed them to lie flat with each other.I really love how these turned out!

Lined up next to each other I found something out. 2 of my kids hand sizes are now the same size! My youngest is getting to be the same size as my middle! What a fun fact to find out! Another interest part of this project for us was that we have to do it again. My Son wants his own handprint for himself. I'm hoping this time I can talk them into coloring them. However, their Daddy will probably prefer this in the black and white that they decided on.

Here is my finished project; a key chain! Their Daddy has always loved having pictures of the kids on his key chain. So, I knew this was a project he might actually use (especially since the colors aren't crazy like I initially wanted them!).

Now my problem is keeping this project a secret from Dad! My kids are pretty good at keeping a secret...I'm not known for it. ;)

17 comments:

Once again you guys have wowed me with this 3 way. I just can't get over how different we can make one idea. Granted this time the only thing we had in common was to use Shrinky Dinks for Father's Day. We talk all the time but most of the time projects like this aren't talked about in detail. I am always surprised and delighted with the out come.

The biggest difference between Rebecca's hands and mine are that the figers are spread wider in hers. I think that helped to keep them from sticking to each other. Since mine were inked handprints the boys didn't have to spread out their fingers.

Katrina

P.S. I think teenagers would be more interested in the shrinking process. It is awesome to watch. Watching them you think they will be horribly crumpled and puckered but magically they flatten back out.

I love this idea and am filing it away for later since my 16 month old isn't so great at sitting still. :-) I hope reading continues to be in full force as she grows older too. Thanks for stopping by my blog. :-)

To the Riggs Family,You can do this!! Just ink your child's hand with embosing ink (it wipes off clean with baby wipes) and press her hand onto the shrinky Dink and let it dry (embossing ink takes longer to dry). I did this on paper every month for the first year with my babies feet. So instead of doing hand prints do her feet (it is easier when they are small than trying to get a hand print).

Don't put off getting hand or foot prints till they are older. I love looking back at how small my children's feet were back then. It becomes harder to imagine they were that small.

can you tell me where you ended up finding the shrinky dinks stuff? and how about the printable stuff? even as pricey as it was, i WANT some!! also, whats the difference between embossing ink and regular ink? and can i find it at my local craft store?

I've been searching every where for a fun idea for my 2 1/2 year old to make for my husband for Christmas. This was perfect. I put her hands on an ink pad and stamped them onto the shrinky dink paper. Then wrote on 1 hand "Hands Down" and on the other hand "You're the best Dad" along w/her name and year. Plan on making them into a key chain for him. They are so stinkin' cute when they got done. Yes, they curled, but then they flattened back out. I know he's going to love these. Thanks for the great ideas. I might use the "plaque" idea for his upcoming birthday & use all 3 of my girls hands for that one.

This was a fabulous tutorial! I tried out the key chains with my kids. They turned out so precious. I blogged about it here if you wanna check it out: http://tawnykw.blogspot.com/2010/06/crafty-fathers-day.html

I read somewhere that you can use the clear plastic salad bar containers or any plastic that has a 6 in the recycling symbol to make Shrinky Dinks with. I haven't tried it yet, but it's worth giving it a try. After all, the supplies are free!

So for the "reach for you" one you had to write all that backwards? i may sound like an idiot but i was born in the 80s and we never did shrinky dinks when i was a kid - only bake your own stained glass ornament kits :)

I can get shrinky dink material at my local scrapbooking store here. Also, I use my embossing heat gun to shrink the plastic instead of the oven that way I have more control over curling pieces by holding with tweezers. I love the key chains and I'm going to make them with my granddaughters to give their dad and Papa. ( I just might make them for me and their mom too)